NewsTaco

By Lily Eskelsen, Lily’s Blackboard

Wednesday I will stand on the West Lawn of our nation’s capitol with thousands of others and demand that a dream come true.

Congress isn’t Disneyland and I am not wishing on a star for Tinker Bell to wave a magic wand. It’s not that kind of dream.

Real dreams aren’t about magic. They’re about work and sacrifice and never giving up. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that his children would live in a world that judged them by the content of their character and not the color of their skin; That there would be a place for them in the country that they loved that simply offered them the same equal opportunity, as anybody else, to live their lives as far as their talents and hard work and luck would take them.

It is not by accident that the immigration movement is defined by the word “dream”. Decades of a hopeless immigration system that defies logic and which has left entire communities frightened, confused, with mothers separated from children and families often the victims of unscrupulous people who cheat vulnerable people into paying their life’s savings to navigate the quagmire of an undecipherable bureaucracy only to find they have lost every dime and no promised papers to show for it.

It’s broken. It’s time to fix it.

The impact of this broken system on our students can be seen in their eyes. Andwe are teachers. We look into those eyes.

Monserrat Garibay is an NEA member and a preschool teacher from Austin, Texas. When she was a child, she came to the United States with her parents but without her documentation. She was what we call a Dreamer – people who dream of becoming a citizen the United States, but because of decisions that were made for them as a child, are ineligible. Monserrat returned to Mexico, studied hard and was able to finally return and become a citizen. Many Dreamers do not have that option. Monserrat understands the fear and the hope.

One of her preschoolers, a four year old boy full of laughter and stories and hugs, tells her about his day and his family and what he wants to be when he grows up. He’s a marvel of Show-N-Tell. But he also tells her about his fears. He tells his teacher about being afraid that his parents will be caught up in an immigration raid where they work.

He knows that sometimes when kids come home, the parents have been taken away and they come home to an empty house. He told her that his little brother is lucky that he was born here. He said, “My little brother is a gringo, so at least there’s one in my family they can’t take away.”

High school Spanish teacher Scott Ellingson says his students can’t wait any longer for comprehensive immigration reform.

There is something broken when a four-year-old little boy is afraid of being separated from his mom and dad and baby brother. Educators will be on the West Lawn of our nation’s capitol because America is all about powerful dreams and relentless dreamers. And because we love our students and will fight for their futures. We have a dream, yes. But real dreams carry a responsibility to fight for those dreams to become reality.

If you can come to the Rally on the Capitol lawn on April 10th, come and show your support. If you can’t come, show your support by signing our petitionsupporting commonsense immigration reform or participating in an echo event in your community.

Wishing won’t make it happen. You will.

Ya es hora. It’s time.

This article was first published in Lily’s Blackboard.

Lily Eskelsen, an elementary teacher from Utah, is Vice President of the National Education Association. She is one of the highest-ranking labor leaders in the country and one of its most influential Hispanic educators.

[Photo by Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights]

Have you read an article you’d like to suggest for the NewsTaco community? Let us know at: tips@newstaco.com

By Ray Salazar, NewsTaco

Now, it looks like I will have lived through two Chicago teachers’ strikes: one as a student, one as a teacher.

After months of contemplation, after many conversations with friends, I’m in.  On Friday, August 31, I will wear red in support of the Chicago Teachers’ Union for the first time in my 17-year education career.

Our strike date is set for September 10 because Chicago Public Schools leaders and the mayor want us to continue working a longer day for free.  They do not respect us as professionals.  They do not understand what good teachers do.

When I was in college, I accompanied my mom to Mexico when her mother died.  We spent most of the hurried flight sitting next to each other silently.  My mother is a strong woman who came to Chicago at fourteen and was failed by the educational system.  She has a sixth grade education; she is the most intelligent woman I know.

In Mexico, we buried my grandmother.  We prayed.  Days after, aunts and uncles and cousins continued thinking about my grandmother and began conversing about other people, other things.  My mom and I found out one of my cousins fought with her husband regularly.  He was an alcoholic.  He abused her verbally.  He put her down for working.  She is a teacher.

One evening, in a small home with many bedrooms, I overheard my mom, my aunt, my cousin talking.  Despite my mom’s deep sadness, her boldness had not waived.  “Defiende tu carrera,” my mother, who still wishes she could have gone to college, quietly–boldly–told my cousin.  “Defend your profession.”

I recite my mother’s advice silently when I must invoke her boldness to speak up or speak out.

I said it to myself when I faced Chicago Public Schools CEO J.C. Brizard and CTU President Karen Lewis face-to-face at a Chicago Tribune event last year after my writing won an essay contest.  Neither educational leader liked my questions that night.  But I asked.

I disagreed and disliked the Chicago Teachers’ Union rhetoric and decisions many times over the last 17 years—I’m honest.  CPS leaders have disappointed me many times, too.

I still don’t agree with everything.  I’d like to exchange some ideas and propose some solutions to the CTU and CPS leaders.  Maybe one day I’ll get the chance.

But for now, I will wear red.  The mayor, the CEO, the non-educators, and too many CPS leaders outside of the classroom misunderstand the demands on teachers today.  They demand what is questionably best for students and expect the impossible from good teachers.

Until we get the official word on or after September 10, I and my fellow Chicago Teachers’ Union members must remember–we are not on strike.  Our students deserve a high-quality education every day they are in school with us. We must fulfill our responsibilities to them until we go on strike and then every day after it ends (if we strike).

Also, we still cannot follow each other blindly. We must stay united AND we must ask each other the hard questions to make sure we are still thinking critically about our moves.  Just like good teachers do in the classroom, union leaders and members must reflect each day:  What worked?  What didn’t?

Today, I will wear red.  Throughout this struggle, with the Chicago Teachers’ Union, I will defend our profession.

It is not difficult to imagine that Juan Manuel Rodriguez has managed to turn the tide in the lives of many young prisoners in Mexico. He knows well the problems and obstacles that live in and off the streets, from poverty to the need to be accepted and to belong to the “band.”

His passion for literature

Originally from Aguascalientes, Mexico, Juan Manuel is the seventh of 10 siblings. His childhood, he says, was simple. “My childhood was humble, my father was a shoemaker and a drunk. I asked my mom once if my dad was really drunk and she told me that the last [bender] lasted four years. I grew up between the shoes and games with many gaps. ”

Despite these shortcomings, Juan Manuel says he was rich in ideas. His passion for reading and writing changed his life, what started as a hobby became a way of life, a transformation for dozens of people who just need a chance to express their feelings through poetry. And today he runs literary workshops in various jails of Aguascalientes.

“My dad died when I was 6 years old , so I was fatherless. Thereafter my mother marked this every year,” he recalls.

“After the death of my father, my mother took over. My brothers were already a little big, the oldest was 17 years or so, and tried to work and study. My mom gave us the example to work and study, we scored the study. I grew up in the neighborhood between the dangers of the street.   I was already smoking by age 9, we went into the chapel to smoke, then everyone in the neighborhood tried marijuana. ”

It is these experiences in the neighborhood that have helped young people understand that they prefer the path of crime and violence. “I started writing poetry as a challenge. I didn’t know it was poetry until a friend read my texts, and he, Richard Ezekiel, was my first teacher. I lived a double life, my work and the band.”

He learned about the abuses that sometimes boys undergo and, opened the door to talk about it with other kids who did not share his fate, learning how to choose the path of success. Juan Manuel needed to expose the positive side and the emotional reality lived on the streets. Thus began poetry workshops in the prison of Social Rehabilitation Center (Cereso) for children in Aguascalientes.

From neighborhood to neighborhood

Interested in bringing to light the sense of “neighborhood,” in 1994 Juan Manuel launched a radio program called “Mi Barrio,” where traditional music was heard in the neighborhood, but was also a place for complaints and help for the families of the boys band. Unknowingly, Juan Manuel’s passion for helping the community would become a profession that would change his life.

“So my community work went hand in hand with my literary work in prisons. I covered two prisons, the Cereso for adults and minors in Aguascalientes, where they began to win prizes. That was how I started with people who had nothing to do. They were lonely or whatever, and enrolled in my class, a change of life, left and right, “explains

“Then I got more prisons and put my people to write and went on to win awards. I don’t have a degree and it’s hard work. I read a lot and prepare, I get paid for doing what I like. ”

Although to many inmates he is considered a hero, Juan Manuel says that title is reserved for the woman who gave him life: “The majority of my family is composed of women, no TV hero was for me a hero, my mother was my hero. ”

And although he says that success is measured many ways, his greatest satisfaction are his sons and all those who have placed their trust in him. “I have murderers, kidnappers, all, I have people who have changed their attitude and that I recognize. They appreciate me. The salary I get paid is no recognition of those people. I do not expect them to give thanks, because if I did I would get frustrated, but that hug or affection they give me is priceless. ”

Juan Manuel is the author of several poetry collections including “The Cat writes with 20 pins,” published in March 2001. He collaborates with several magazines, of course in the art and culture sections. Some of his work has involved criminal inmates.

Also, this modest man, 41, is editor and coordinator of the publication LeTRASlasRejas written entirely by local prison inmates, who attend free creative writing workshop that he coordinates.

Thanks to the support and confidence of the prison authorities of Aguascalientes, Juan Manuel cultivates the satisfaction of his students’ numerous awards, including a very special National Poetry Prize Prison for five consecutive years.

“The teacher is an example, a great friend who believes in us, I really think we can do something different, something useful here in prison and once they go out and fulfill our convictions,” said one of his students to Expediente Rojo, while visiting one of these rehabilitation centers in Mexico.

{Photo By JoelMontes]

Wanted: More Good Latino Teachers
Racist Jokes At Work: ‘Oh, But I Didn’t Mean You’
Controversy Surrounds Colombiana Film For Stereotyping
Refreshing Watermelon Salsa
Bien Hecho: Latina Journalist Runs In Santa Barbara, CA

Six percent of the nation’s K-12 teachers are Latino, compared to 20% of the Latino student population in public schools – that’s according to reports by the National Center for Education Information and the Pew Hispanic Center.

The good news is that the number of Latino teachers has increased over the past year, but not nearly enough to keep up with the enormous growth of school aged Latinos. And while we’re pretty good at projecting the number of Latino students in public schools in the years to come -

The (U.S. Census) bureau projects that the Hispanic school-age population will increase by 166% by 2050 (to 28 million from 11 million in 2006) -

we’re not that good at predicting the number of future Latino teachers. We know that the overall percentage of Latin0 teachers lags far behind the percentage of Latino students, and many researchers believe that the gap needs to be addressed. We just don’t know for sure how long it is going to take to remedy the situation.

We also don’t know if it will make a difference. Do Latino children do better in school if their teacher is Latino(a)? The Latinoedbeat.org  tried to answer that question but in the end  gave us no more than a pile of questions:

What effect does that have on learning? Do Latino children respond better when their teachers personally reflect their cultures and experiences? Are Latino teachers more likely to incorporate materials and lessons that appeal to diverse student populations? Do Latino parents work better with Latino teachers?

And that’s because there is no easy answer. My own kids had mostly white teachers, and they did okay – one just graduated form an Ivy League school and the other studies at a prestigious film school. But my kids weren’t at risk and they didn’t go to inner city urban schools, so their experience was not the same as that of the majority of U.S Latino kids. And it’s precisely in low income, inner city classrooms where Latino teachers may be able to make a difference.

I’ll be first in line to thank any teacher who chooses to work in urban classroom settings; they mostly mean well and I don’t mean to sound condescending when I say that. It’s just that many of the non-Latino inner city school teachers I’ve spoken to have a certain “pobrecitos” attitude that does Latino students no good. Their pity, although well founded, doesn’t allow for challenging the students to rise above their circumstances. And truth be told some Latinos teachers aren’t any better – they have a my-kids-can’t-learn-complicated-stuff belief that short changes their students.

So I don’t know if more Latino teachers will be better for Latino students, but the statistical gap shouldn’t be ignored. It is possible that Latino parents will respond better to a Latino teacher; it’s possible that Latino teachers will better understand language and cultural nuances; it’s possible that as the number of Latino teachers increases we may see an increase in Latino student performance.

I also don’t want to diminish the wonderful work done by thousands of teachers who sacrifice their time and money in order to make a difference in the lives of children who live in the most dire circumstances. Many of the nation’s good teachers are Latinos who do what they do selflessly.

What we do know is that the number of Latino educators needs to increase, if for no other reason than because it would enrich the diversity and experience within the teaching profession. And that would go a long way towards closing the education gap and the effects of poverty on learning. The children’s Defense Fund reports:

children are the poorest age group with 15.5 million children—one in every five children in America—living in poverty, and more than 60 percent of fourth, eighth and 12th grade public school students are reading or doing math below grade level.

Would more Latino teachers make a difference?

It’s possible, but I come at this with the same attitude with which I approach politics. We shouldn’t vote for Latino candidates just because they’re Latino, and if they are bad politicians (“políticos rancios,” as the late Henry B. Gonzalez used to say) we should vote them out. In the same way we shouldn’t assume that a Latino teacher will be best for Latino students simply because they share a culture.

What we need are good, committed, creative teachers and we need to make it possible for more talented Latinos and Latinas to become educators.

Granted, there’s a lot more that needs to be done to close the Latino learning gap – politics, funding, parental involvement – and that’s enough to take up more space then you’d care to read in one sitting. But in that litany of needs the dearth of Latino teachers is important. Six percent is nowhere near enough.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda

[Photo by Bart Everson]

Edwin Vargas has seen Hartford, Connecticut go through some pretty astounding changes in the 40 years that he’s lived there. Now, as a candidate for mayor, he’s hoping to be able to take his personal experiences growing up in Puerto Rico, combine them with the 35 years he spent teaching social studies in Hartford and continue to promote the changes he’s seen in that town as the Latino population continues to grow.

“I take great pride in our community because, despite all the poverty and all the discrimination, we still have a community that is still very loyal to its roots, very much a Latino community that is fierce about its traditions, customs, bilingual programs and I feel that we can do more of that and more effectively,” Vargas tells News Taco.

Vargas came to teach in Hartford in the 1970s, became part of the Puerto Rican Political Action Committee that became a regional movement to help elect Latino candidates to the local, state and other offices. He retired from teaching in 2007, has been the city’s commissioner of planning and zoning since 2005 and now in 2011 is running for mayor.

Vargas says his campaign is focused on education, children and workers. The idea is to create an “urban lab” out of the city to turn it into a model of how to transform poverty-stricken areas, Vargas says. One example he gave was to keep the schools open until 9 pm.

Currently and according to the 2010 Census figures, Hartford is 72.4% white, 13.3% African-American and 15.3% Latino. Vargas adds that the city is the richest per-capita in the state, yet a very poor city with one of the highest tax rates in the state. Most of the Latinos there are Puerto Rican, but Vargas adds that Colombians, Dominicans, Peruvians and Mexicans are increasingly making up the mix, too.

Now that Vargas has spent decades in Hartford, he can reflect on so much change that’s taken place and still be hopeful. He remembers when he first arrived how the Latino students in schools were discriminated again, “If they behaved, then they were basically allowed to languish in a corner of the room without their needs being met; if they got bored and acted out, they were being labeled with discipline problems.”

Looking towards the September election, though, Vargas says he has hope — for himself, his community and his campaign. For more information visit his Facebook page.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo Courtesy Facebook]